Diattaart Blog

every year in Bruges, Belgium an international ice and snow festival is held. This years theme was Disneyland Paris at Christmas time. The event is now in its ninth season! Awesome!

The show runs from November 25 of 2011 until January 12, 201.

Via this website you can go on a virtual tour, it helps you get a feel of the many 10 hour days these artists put in to achieve these great results. Her is a 13 minute clip on the incredible sculptures that were made for display this year.

Below is the website for the festival, be sure and check out the reality tour!

http://www.ijssculptuur.be/index.asp?taal=en

These artists are incredible. I am sure anyone who grew up around snow as a kid made a snowman. This is snow and ice at an adult skill level. Fantastic. Also at this time is an ice sculpture show in Germany that has to do with a circus themes. I was unable to find a good article however to report about it. Besides, I love the Disney characters more. Fun to see characters from the Jungle Book or Toy Story done in ice and life size!

Keep learning!  The fun is in the process, not the end goal whatever it may be.

Enjoy the Holiday Season.

D

this artist has really made a name for himself in the art world  this past year.  You might have seen his still life paintings in the magazine American Art Collector. He is known for painting the fruit still life, but sliced fruit. The artist says its so that the fruit then looks very similar to stained glass.  The artist is a great handler of paint and technique, and the compositions are very new to the art world. I had seen sliced fruit on a table or on a plate, the artist has really changed the idea of a still life by zeroing in on one or two slices and painting the translucency of the fruit. Such a high level of painting in these works.

Similar to the ceramic artist I mentioned some posts back, I look very closely at the patterns of toilet paper now, this artist has caused me to look more closely at slices of fruit. Using fun shapes for the fruit slices and then painting the see effect at a very high level.

Just recently the artist has been working on floral paintings. Close cropped shots of just one flower, no messing with a face or really a background. Please appreciate the scale of size this artist uses also. Many times on a square format the paintings are four feet by four feet. Many  times on the citrus series or melon the pieces are 72 inches on the long side!

This artist is very inspirational for me and has taught me to go into detail sometimes on a floral. Ideally I want to be able to paint as loose as Sargent or as tight as Wyeth.

The paintings are first done in monochrome then many layers of paint, 10 to 12 layers in fact. His master of influence is Vermeer. The composition and his painting of light are a huge influence on the artist.  His artist statement is that he trying to achieve something simple, with a complicated process.

The artist received a M.F.A. from the University of Illinois in Drawing and Painting in 1981. In 1977 and 78 he studied at an atelier in France. Well done!

Try an oversize floral today, you will become more aware of the many small shapes seen in the petals.

Happy painting!

D

this artist was a great African American painter of last century. Like one of his idols Henry Ossawa Tanner, moved to Europe to gain not only crucial experience from the scholars but also to exhibit art as an artist, not as a NEGRO artist.In his many works he painted minorities in more prominent positions than just a slave or maid.

The artist was born in Indiana in 1884. At the age of twenty the artist moved to Chicago. He painted many murals around the city and the most famous of these is called “Commerce” By painting minorities in high class jobs and not just slave he hoped to start a movement of the races and equality.

Went to France and studied with Henry O. Tanner. Then began an art career. This was done in Europe as the United States was still caught in racism so it was would have been very difficult for him to have a career in the arts in this country.

The artist also visited Haiti for many years. Among his favorite scenes to paint were the local markets. The composition on these works is tremendous.  The viewer gets the impression that people are in motion.  In 1950 he painted a wonderful masterpiece titled “Haitian Markets.”

For portraits the artist painted great images of Frederick Douglass.

The artist was heavily influenced by Henry Ossawa Tanner but race didn’t play as much a part of his works as American artists that were black. He started his career in Europe and it was hard for Europeans to get a handle on looking at race first, rather than just part of someone. It was the time of Josephine Baker and Henry Ossawa Tanner so Europeans cared more about the talent of the artist rather than their skin color.

The artist died in Chicago in 1964.

The best attribute of this artist for me is his design and composition skills, FANTASTIC.

Create!

D

Yes I mean the singer! The artistic side of Mr. Bennett extends to visual arts as well. A great painter working in oils but mainly in watercolor. He even has come books out with collections of his art. His paintings include  cities and countries he has visited as well as still lifes and skyscapes. He is really diverse in his subject matter. If you look at his still lifes he did some tea pots that showed a high degree of difficulty with the reflections of the surrounding objects. THIS AUDIO ARTIST CAN PAINT! Make no mistake about it.  His painting of the fabric in the still lifes is also of very high quality.

He paints under the name Benedetto Arts and much of the money it generates goes right to charity. The artist currently has a piece on Ebay showing Lady Gaga that I will write about next post!

For me the artist is best at capturing the feeling of landscapes.

The artist formed this LLC company showing his works and paintings and dealing with sales and promotion. The company is based in New York City.

The artist was born in 1926 and grew up in the Astoria and New York City areas.

The artist is just a great gift to the art world as a whole. His art sales have helped out many charities. On my next entry I will include a drawing that is currently up for sale.

The clip below shows Mr. Bennett giving an interview talking about his love of producing visual art.

Be Inspired!

D

Quick slideshow of the artists work set to music is below.

this artist specializes in painting figures. He is known for painting couples kissing or hugging and using very limited lighting.

Mr. Nolet was born in Quebec, Canada in 1964. The young artist immersed himself early on in life with art and was able to become successful at art at the age of 20.

His brushwork is very light and in fact the paint quality when finished looks like a very smooth fabric rather than paint.

I am sure like myself you noticed the artist has design skills similar to a Thomas Kinkade, using vibrant color shapes in the negative spaces and backgrounds and animated the movement of the human elements of the picture. The figures seem to move on their own the line work is so good! Using silhouettes also helps keep the viewer intrigued in the art as one can ponder what the face really looks like.

If you had only two words to describe the artist’s works the words “romantic urbanism” comes to mind.

Try painting some figures embracing and see what you come up with. Then watch some old Disney movies and compare the two!

Happy painting!

D